The Way to Peace and Joy

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Joy is closely related to peace because such inner delight accompanies and depends on a sense of well-being. The hidden and personal contentment which is peace, flourishes in us when we are doing what we were meant to do, despite whatever else may be happening more superficially and externally.

In other words, it is hard to have peace, and subsequently joy, unless we are engaged in living out our own purpose. Otherwise, we are ‘out of sync’ with ourselves and will typically sense that something isn’t right, even if we don’t know what it is. Attempting to find joy or peace apart from expressing who we are meant to be, will yield little of either.

Let me pause to note that “doing what we are meant to do” isn’t primarily or fundamentally about work or a job. We might think of this immediately because we tend to believe that who we are is grounded in such things. But this automatic association reflects the orientation of our culture and not our true purpose or meaning of our existence.

Notice that the verse quoted above speaks of peace and joy in believing, and believing is trusting in God. Because God is love, our peaceful and joyful self is found in how we are trusting in love, which is where we find what is meaningful.

Since we are all created to be relational, we come into yourselves when the divine love which formed us is experienced in offering love and being loved. Our personal purpose and meaning has to do with the specific way we are each intended to love, which will be our own particular way of life that contributes to the whole of love in the world.

Joy and peace arise very naturally within our soul when we are loving and finding fulfillment in our participation in divine love. However, expressing our true purpose is possible only if we are able to truly rest in knowing and accepting ourselves. A sense of personal fulfillment requires that we know ourselves well enough to live in harmony with who we truly are, and also accept ourselves as we are.

Consequently, the ground of peace and joy begins with honestly looking at ourselves, and realizing that we are not at all who we would like to be. Despite this, we hear God callng us “beloved”, accepting us and enjoying us as we are, even while transforming us as he draws us into his everlasting embrace.

To be called “beloved” by God is to know ourselves as those who are destined not only for the transforming reception of love, but who are also to pour it out. Freely we have received, and freely we are to give. Being the “beloved” is the basis of self-acceptance. We can accept ourselves, just as we are, because God accepts us in this very manner.

In the love of God, we learn that there is a “me” that each of us can be, without trying to live up to anyone else’s expectations or judgments, even our own. This “me” naturally has love to offer to the world as we are healed by the love coming to us from God. Concretely doing this daily, in whatever way fits us, is being who we were meant to be.

Sublime joy and peace result if we are at home within ourselves because we have found God abiding in us. In other words, both a grounding peace and persistent joy may be found in all our relationships, experiences, and activities when we are, by God’s grace, at peace with who we are and are living joyfully by love.